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Maryland State Archives Adam Goodheart Collection MSA SC 5826 msa_sc5826_3_1-0019 Enlarge and print image (992K) |
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Maryland State Archives Adam Goodheart Collection MSA SC 5826 msa_sc5826_3_1-0019 Enlarge and print image (992K) |
| msa_sc5826_3_l-0019 ©Maryland State Archives - 19 - The matriculation at West Point was any thing but agreeable. My first contretems happened after my Father had left the Point and I was turned over to the charge of my countryman Mr. Richard C. Tilghman, then in the second class. When I went to the Adjutant's office to be measured, Mr. Griff- iths the Adj't. inadvertently used a French measure, and ruled me under size, the regulation then requiring a height of only 4ft. 9 in, I went back to Mr. Tilghman in despair and he and Cadet Izard of the same class, went at once in search of a rule to test Mr. Griffiths' measurement. Nothing was used at that time by the Cadets, in their drawings, but French instruments and it was no easy matter to find an English measure. However one was at last found, and I was measured and re-measured with my shoes off and my shoes on by nearly half the old cadets in the Corps, and after five or six hours of anxiety and I may say mental torture, recess sounded and Cadets Tilghman and Izard, resolved themselves into a Com. of Inquiry and marched with me to the Adjutant's office. We met Mr. Griffiths at the door, and he with his philantropic smile said "Oh! I know what you have come for, I have just discovered my mistake in measuring this young gentleman, I used a French rule". I was re-measured and passed by a line only. Having before that passed my examination in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, I was carried off to the Tailor to be measured for my clothes. How I passed this examination is a wonder to me and if the Professors who com- posed the examining Board were not notoriously and painfully impartial, I should say it was favoritism, in consequence of my small size or the agreeable impressions provided by my Father, Tho' practised and expert in the Field sports, riding, shooting and sailing, I had never heard a word of French, read or spoken. Some advantage was derived from a pretty good knowledge of Latin and some Greek, In Mathematics the foundation rock on which the W. Point course is built, I was utterly ignorant. The course of studies of the Academy, pursued in my day, was projected by Col. Sylvanus Thayer, who when Captain of |